Kickstarter - IceBlink Engine & Toolset

November 27th, 2012, 17:29

We received a mail on this Kickstarter pledge named IceBlink, which is about the creation of a 2D engine and toolset allowing you to create your own 2D role playing games. They only asked for $500 and are already over $1,000 so they are funded.

This project will develop a Role Playing Game (RPG) 2D engine and toolset as well as a demo adventure game module created with the toolset. The game is inspired by a few of my favorite games; The Bardís Tale, SSI Gold Box series games, Baldurís Gate, and Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2). The intent is to create a game engine that results in a virtual table top, Pen and Paper type feel in a single player computer game. The game engine will be free once completed, but the toolset will initially only be available to backers of this Kickstarter project. The toolset will allow anyone to create their own adventures to share with the rest of us.

Looks interesting, but I'm a bit doubtful of the functionality of it and especially of the ruleset they're going to implement. I take it, they're going use a "homebrewed "system, which can be good or it can be a disaster. Not trying to be negative here, it just makes me cautious, as it's not a trivial task to create a good, functional RPG ruleset.

Then again, they're not asking for much, so we can't ask too much either. Too bad that the stretch goal where they'd implement the ability to do custom classes, spells, etc. ($3000) seems way out of reach - that's where the engine would become interesting to me.

Yeah I agree, the spells / classes editor would be fun. Apparently they're considering changing the stretch goals so that you'd get it at 2k, possibly at the expense of the script generator. They emailed backers earlier about it, but I don't know what they decided.

Having said backers had slowed earlier, i just checked their kickstarter page and they seem to have gained about 200 dollars since yesterday, so 2k is surely doable!

The ruleset is not finalized yet, but will be somewhat d20ish only a little simpler. The main focus of this project is to make a strong storytelling engine and a toolset that is easy to learn and use. I do think that the $2,000 stretch goal will be attainable.

RPG Watch shows only one, but some of the "direct traffic" and "kickstarter" referrers are actually from here as well. Thanks everyone for your support. I'm hopeful we will hit the $2k stretch goal and have full customization of classes, races, skills, spells, etc.

Thank you for that update on the rules/game mechanics. Made me much more confident in this project. So much so that I went and pledged. I would've been a fool not to pledge, to be honest, as I've been playing Champions of Krynn (one of the SSI Gold Box games) recently, loving every minute of it, and this engine is just right down that same alley. So this really is a no-brainer for me.

C'mon Watch, get on board! Every dollar counts!

Slowdive, I'd like to ask a question about the engine. I tried looking at the KS pages for info, but couldn't find an answer to this. How big is the maximum size of the party in your engine? Hopefully 6-8, like in the Gold Box games. However, I've only seen places for 4 characters in your WIP screenshots, so I'm a bit worried it might only be a maximum of 4 characters in the party.

The party list is a List<T> of objects so it is not a fixed amount and could be almost infinite…if you have infinite memory :-)
For now, I just have the buttons for 4 party members shown, but I can easily program party member UI buttons to appear based on party size. I would need to make sure that the overall window can handle all the PC buttons on the main screen, inventory screen, etc.

Four days to go to raise $500 and hit the all important $2,000 stretch goal. This goal will open up the possibilities to create you own settings such as future, modern, etc.

That's good news, I tend to prefer six character parties (probably born out of growing up on the old gold box games!). Fewer characters can work well though, especially if you're not designing an epic with loads of opportunity to get tonnes of xp for development etc.

The game mechanics sound great. Fingers crossed for the next couple of days - you're getting really close to the magic $2k, just needs a few more backers….!

IceBlink Engine just reached the all important stretch goal of $2k, which will enable custom classes, races, spells, etc. Congrats to Bree Arts/Slowdive!

Slowdive, thanks for the answer above. Great that we can have larger parties than 4, I consider 6 to be the ideal party size myself (Gold Box, Infinity Engine, etc.).

I just watched the KS video again and got a couple more questions for you:

1. I personally would have loved individual inventories, but you are using a party inventory instead. How will you limit carrying capacity? Will it be limited by a number of items (slot limit) or by some form of party encumbrance (total carrying capacity vs total ENC), or will it be unlimited altogether?

2. How many equipment slots will each character have (for equipping armor, helmets, rings, etc.). The video shows only four slots, but I guess that's just to have something to show on the video and not indicative of the actual number. I truly hope so! I'd hope for at least twice as many slots per character (i.e. 8). Maybe even have it choosable by the game/adventure creator from 4-8 (or something) and have the slots be renameable, so one adventure might have slot 1 be for helmets, but another could use it for amulets, for example.

3. Will it be possible to add (simple) animation to the tokens/avatars? Not thinking of anything fancy, a simple one or two frame animation would do (like from idle/on guard state to attack and back).

4. Not sure if I saw it correctly, but was there auto-looting after the combat encounter? If so, I hope it will be possible to turn that off. Me not like auto-looting.

5. HOw will the ruleset handle healing and resting? I truly hope that you're not going to go with the streamlined way of insta-healing everyone right after an encounter (and those who were killed, were actually only knocked out). If you're using some form of resting mechanic, I hope it is restricted somehow, e.g. not allowing resting inside an enemy stronghold and so on.

@Lurking Grue: Very good questions - perhaps ask them at the kickstarter thread itself (again)? Slowdive_fan/Jeremy has quite a lot of sites to check in these last 48 hours, so he might miss the one or other discussion (would be a shame if these questions would get lost).

Speaking of the final 48 hours…having reached the big 2.000 $ stretch goal means that classes, races, skills, spells, etc. will be customizable by the users of the toolset. We will be able to design truely unique and personalized RPGs like Pool of Radiance with this. A dream for RPG fans.

Hope to see some more like minded fellows over there in the kickstarter thread .

Hey Lurking Grue,
I haven't made it to that level of detail in the design on some of your questions, so they are still up for discussion. Keep in mind that the game engine is far from complete and I only have a working prototype with very basic features at the moment.
1. Party inventory system: I haven't implemented an inventory limit as of yet. I may allow for both options (weight or number of items) and leave it up to the module designer to choose which system they wish to use in their module. I much prefer the party inventory or individual inventories (for convenience reasons), but I'm still open to changes (I never understood how they could carry sooo much junk in their packs anyway )
2. Equipment Slots: Yeah, four slots were just for testing purposes. Iíd like to have about 8 slots that are named by the author (really needs to be since we now have the stretch goal which allows for custom settings such as fantasy, modern, future, etc.)
3. I plan on having animation similar to the SSI Gold Box games (Idle and attack). Plus animations for projectiles, spells, etc.
4. For now I had auto looting, but that could be changed easily enough. I already have a container system so I could just have containers assigned to encounters so that at the end of the encounter a container dialog box opens with the options for (loot all, take selected, leave).
5. I much prefer the Infinity Engine style of death, healing, and resting. Resting should only be allowed in certain areas and there may be a chance for an ambush while sleeping. Iíll leave it up to the author to decide in which areas you are able to rest. There is no insta-healing, you need to use spells, heal kits, potions, or resting just like in the IE games. If you die in combat, you need to resurrect or reload.

Yeah someone must have just pledged about $800 in one go. Really hope that's a genuine pledge, cos its great news! The script editor will be great for those who know nothing about programming in C (ie me)